There are few real "rules" for posting to our mailing list. But a few guidelines help to keep
things flowing smoothly, and also let prospective members have a better
idea of how our group works and what will be
expected of them if they join. Most of these guidelines are
reasonably flexible and all members are encouraged to be familiar
with these and to make suggestions as to changes in the guidelines.
Whenever changes are made, this page will be updated and an
announcement will be made on the mailing list.

1. New members are encouraged to post notes
introducing themselves. It's certainly not required, but it does help us
to get to know one another. PRIVATELY responding to introductory messages is also
encouraged. One of our strengths is the bonds of friendship we
form here.

2. Whenever you are aware of a prayer need -
ANY prayer need - please post it as soon as possible.
While our initial focus is pets and animals, we aren't limited to
this. Prayer requests for people or situations are also
welcome and encouraged. Simply
put, almost anything you feel a need to pray for is appropriate
to be posted on PrayersForPets as long as it isn't a possibly
inflammatory topic (see #10 below), and as
long as the situation is real. Before you pass along something from the
internet, please try to check its validity on snopes.com or some other
way.

3. We must always be aware of
individuals' right to privacy, as well as copyright laws. If you learn of a need
through personal contact or private email, please either get
permission to post it or leave names out of your post unless you are
absolutely positive that the person won't mind. God knows the names so we
don't really need to. If you want to forward a prayer need from
another list, please get the original poster's permission or
paraphrase the original post and leave out names. Of course an exception
to this would be if the original post made a general request
for prayer. Basically, just use good judgement here, and never
just assume that it's okay to forward a private message.

3a. When you forward
posts that have been sent to you, PLEASE remove all headers and
email addresses of people it was previously sent to. Copy/pasting
the body of the message is much better than straight forwarding. Our moderators are tired of
having to remove this stuff, so if you send it we'll
just send it back to you.

3b. Please do
not forward material from other mailing lists other than prayer
needs.

3c. Posts
and/or information from this list is NOT to be posted to other lists
unless the original poster specifically gives
permission.

4. Please post updates
on people, pets or situations we are praying for as you become
aware of them. This helps us to know when special praise and
thanks are in order or if our prayers need to be changed.

5. Sharing of inspirational poems or brief
stories that would be of interest to most of us in the
context of our purpose is
encouraged. These things
help to strengthen our bonds
of friendship and deepen our faith. Please do NOT post sermon-type
material, bible study lessons, etc. This is a prayer list, not
a Sunday school class.

6. If you have recently had prayers answered,
even if the original need was never shared with the group,
please feel free to tell us about it. Most of us need to be
reminded sometimes that prayer changes things.

7. PRIVATE notes of
support are certainly appropriate and usually appreciated by those
who need them. These also
strengthen the bond of caring that we have always shared.
Again, you are not required to email or correspond with anyone.

8. Discussion of
administrative matters should be done with Kate and/or Melanie
(the list owners/moderators) privately
. If changes are suggested that
would affect us as a group, we can then post about them so they
can be openly discussed.

8a. Discussion about or criticism
singling out the specific posting practices of one or two people
MUST NOT be posted on the list. If you have a problem
with something someone else is doing, please email Kate or Melanie
first and we will try to work it out. But public
criticism just cannot be allowed and may result in immediate
removal from the list.

9. This one isn't a suggestion, but
a hard and fast zero tolerance rule. Flaming, whether done publicly
or privately, in response to any PFP post, will NOT be tolerated. If
you flame another member or a non-member who has requested prayers,
even once, you will be permanently removed from the list. If you are
the victim of flaming, please forward the offensive message to the list moderators at PrayersForPets-owner @
yahoogroups.com (remove the spaces before and after @
)
as soon as
possible.

For those who may not be
familiar with the term "flaming", the definition as it applies to
PFP is here
.

10. Material and/or
opinions on topics of a possibly inflammatory nature (such as for
or against racing, dog shows, horse shows, rodeos, animal
breeding, etc.) MUST NOT be posted here. We have faithful members among us who
participate in some of these activities, as well as those who have
strong feelings against them. Neither group will be subjected to abuse or
criticism here. This includes message bodies AND signature
lines
. There are
other forums that can and should be used for opinions
and debating. Other than discussions concerning our own policies as a group, this
is not the proper forum for debates which could only serve to
divide us. Our list is moderated, so posts of this
type will not be approved for posting, and a
warning will be issued. Persistence will result in removal
from the group.

10a. Political issues are another no-no for
our group. Please refrain from posting any opinions regarding elections,
candidates, or government policies. We have Democrats, Independents,
Republicans and other parties represented in our group. If everyone is
allowed to post their views we have an instant debate. We don't want to go
there on this list.

11. Our
group encompasses a wide range of Christian denominations. While we all believe in
God and the power of prayer, our methods and styles of prayer
and worship may vary dramatically. Most of us view this
diversity as one of our strengths. Sharing of what your
particular denomination or style of worship is all about should be welcome
here when other traffic is light. However, we should
never allow any kind of "my religion is better than yours"
discussion to get started. Also, because we are joyfully
diversified, we should keep this fact in mind as we post so that
no one feels left out.

12. To help
protect our members from viruses, etc., attachments are not allowed on list posts. If you try
to post
a message with attachments, your post will come through, but the attachment will
not. In some cases that just results in a
blank post.

13. Please think carefully about these
guidelines and make any suggestions you think would improve our
group's effectiveness.

14. If you have
any questions or comments about the guidelines please
email me before you join.